In the opening pages of Genesis, creation is not a scattered collection of parts, but a web of life: light with darkness, land with sea, humanity with God. Each strand distinct, yet all belonging to one whole. This divine weaving is not a decorative flourish at the edge of the story: it is the story. Later, in the New Testament, Paul tells the Colossians that in Christ “all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). Jesus is not simply one thread among many; he is the weaver, the pattern, and the strength that binds the whole fabric of creation.
This month is the start of our Global Connections season invites us to remember and live into that truth. As part of the district-wide Everything Is Connected Art Trail, co-produced with the Methodist Modern Art Collection (MMAC) and the Methodist Church, we are hosting Jesus: Guru, Avatar, God?, an exhibition of two works from the MMAC that offer fresh, and perhaps unsettling, perspectives on Jesus. Francis N. Souza’s The Crucifixion confronts us with raw, uncompromising lines and colours that refuse to let the cross be domesticated or hidden away. Jyoti Sahi’s Dalit Madonna, rooted in the experience of India’s most marginalised communities, reframes Mary and her child within a world marked by caste oppression and resilient hope.
Placed side by side in the Cathedral, these works do more than display artistic skill; they open a space for conversation, not only between Christian and other faith perspectives, but between cultures, histories, and lived experiences. In their very difference, they become a parable of the kind of connection our faith calls us to: not the flattening of distinctiveness, but the transformation of relationship into something beautiful, strong, and whole.
The thread continues in our HER-itage Open Day, which will uncover the often-overlooked contributions of women to the shaping of Bradford, the Cathedral, and the wider Church. These stories do not simply fill gaps in our memory; they challenge us to see the tapestry of God’s people in its fullness, enriched by those whose voices have too often been muted. Listening to them is not merely an act of remembrance; it is an act of re-membering, bringing the body of Christ together again.
It is woven still deeper in the Difference course, running from 23rd September to 21st October. Over five sessions, we will learn to cross divides with grace, to forgive where trust has been broken, and to practise reconciliation not as an abstract theory but as a daily, sometimes costly, choice. In a world so often marked by division and suspicion, this is not an optional extra for the Christian life; it is the very way of the cross and resurrection.
Through art, story, and shared learning, this season invites you to live as though “everything is connected” because in Christ, it is. My prayer is that whether you step into the stillness of worship, the hum of conversation, or the quiet awe before a work of art, you will sense the Spirit’s weaving at work and that you will discover yourself, perhaps unexpectedly, woven more deeply into God’s tapestry of hope.
The Revd Canon Ned Lunn, Intercultural Mission and the Arts